Solvent Effects on the piezochromism of molybdenum(IV) and tungsten(IV) anions [M(CN)3O(diimine)]−

Solvatochromism of the [Mo(CN)₃O(phen)]⁻ ion has been studied. Solvent effects on pressure dependence (up to 1.25 kbar) of wavelengths of maximum absorption for charge-transfer bands of several molybdenum(IV) and tungsten(IV) complexes, [M(CN)₃O(diimine)]⁻ (M = Mo or W), are described. The effects of applied pressure are larger for less polar unstructured solvents than for highly polar hydrogen-bonded solvents. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Study of magnetoresistance and conductance of bicrystal grain boundary in La0.67Ba0.33MnO3 thin film

La_0.67Ba_0.33MnO₃ (LBMO) thin film is deposited on a 36.7°C SrTiO₃ bicrystal substrate using laser ablation technique. A microbridge is created across bicrystal grain boundary and its characteristics are compared with a microbridge on the LBMO film having no grain boundary. Presence of grain boundary exhibits substantial magnetoresistance ratio (MRR) in the low field and low temperature region. Bicrystal grain boundary contribution in MRR disappears at temperature T>175 K. At low temperature, I-V characteristic of the microbridge across bicrystal grain boundary is nonlinear. Analysis of temperature dependence of dynamic conductance-voltage characteristics of the bicrystal grain boundary indicates that at low temperatures (T<175 K) carrier transport across the grain boundary in LBMO film is dominated by inelastic tunneling via pairs of manganese atoms and tunneling through disordered oxides. At higher temperatures (T>175 K), magnetic scattering process is dominating. Decrease of bicrystal grain boundary contribution in magnetoresistance with the increase in temperature is due to enhanced spin-flip scattering process.     

Hydro-de-halogenation and consecutive deprotection of chlorinated N-amido-pyrrolidin-2-ones with Raney-Ni: an effective approach to gabapentin

The benzoylamino group was identified as a useful radical cyclization auxiliary that can be smoothly removed on hydro-de-halogenation of chlorinated N-substituted-pyrrolidin-2-ones with Raney-Ni. This methodology was successfully implemented in a new and appealing route to the anti-epileptic drug gabapentin.     

An electroreflectance study of gallium antimonide in the 3.0–4.2 eV region

Results of an electroreflectance investigation of gallium antimonide in the 3.0–4.2 eV region are presented. The observed recurrence in this region of the spin-orbit splitting of the zone-center valence band states suggests a revised assignment for the observed recurrence in this region of the spin-orbit splitting of the zone-center valence band states suggests a revised assignment for the observed structure in terms of transitions to the second conduction band states.     

Surface waves in cholesterics in a magnetic field

Propagating waves on the free surface of a cholesteric liquid crystal in a vertical magnetic field are considered for the case when the anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility is negative. Surface fluctuations distort the helical structure and the dispersion relation and penetration depth are shown to depend on three possible restoring forces: the surface tension, the twist elastic forces associated with the helix, and the magnetic field.     

The use of emission spatial profiles for the establishment of an internal reference point in ICP-AES

ICP torches are essentially unique devices. They are by necessity hand-made items. Therefore each has small variations in shape which cause individual differences in plasma configuration. As a consequence, utilization of an external reference point such as the “top of the load coil” is not adequate. It is well documented that ICP sources are complex and that different excitation mechanisms come into play in different parts of the source. This is demonstrated by the fact that generally atomic transitions have their peak intensities lower in the plasma, whereas ionic transitions peak higher in the plasma. The height-intensity relationship of both atomic and ionic species has been investigated. The use of the intersection of normalized atomic and ionic emission intensity profiles as a function of observation height has been evaluated as a possible internal reference point. This point is shown to be reproducible and easy to measure.     

Embeddings of bipartite graphs

If G is a bipartite graph with bipartition A, B then let G_m,n(A, B) be obtained from G by replacing each vertex a of A by an independent set a₁, …, a_m, each vertex b of B by an independent set b₁,…, b_n, and each edge ab of G by the complete bipartite graph with edges a_ib_j (1 ≤ i ≤ m and 1 ≤ j ≤ n). Whenever G has certain types of spanning forests, then cellular embeddings of G in surfaces S may be lifted to embeddings of G_m,n(A, B) having faces of the same sizes as those of G in S. These results are proved by the technique of “excess-current graphs.” They include new genus embeddings for a large class of bipartite graphs.